"Hahahaha! Whitebeard, can't handle it anymore?" Finn hauled himself out of the sand pit, grinning despite the blood on his lips.
Newgate spat out another mouthful of blood, then dragged himself upright with considerably less dignity. He wiped the crimson from his mouth and glared at Finn. "Can't handle it? You want me to sink you to the bottom of the sea right now?"
"Big talk from a man spitting blood!" Finn laughed.
Before Newgate could respond, Finn extended one hand toward him. Gravity erupted from his palm in a violent surge.
The ground beneath Newgate's feet crumbled. An overwhelming attractive force seized him, yanking his massive frame off the ground and pulling him directly toward Finn.
Newgate's response was immediate. He threw a punch backward, and vibration force detonated in the space between them. The shockwave disrupted Finn's gravitational pull, breaking the technique's hold.
But Finn was already moving. Purple light flashed beneath his feet as he made his body weightless and closed the distance in a heartbeat.
"Hah!"
Shindokutō came down in a brutal arc.
Newgate's arms wrapped in Armament Haki. He raised them in a cross-guard, blocking the strike purely on instinct.
The demon blade struck his Haki-coated forearms with a screech of metal on hardened will. Sparks flew from the impact point. Even as he defended, Newgate's other fist was already swinging toward Finn's head.
Finn's eyes gleamed with savage determination. Haki flooded his forehead in an instant, and he drove his skull forward to meet Newgate's fist head-on.
THUD.
The impact sent vibrations through both their bodies. Newgate's arm went numb from the collision. Finn's vision swam with dizziness.
But his transmigrator's Iron Will meant the disorientation didn't affect his movements at all. Using the momentum of his body tilting backward, Finn pivoted and drove his foot into Newgate's knee. Dark purple gravity compressed around his leg, multiplying the force.
The concentrated pressure hammered Newgate's knee joint. His tall frame buckled, forced down onto one knee as the sand beneath him compacted under the gravitational force.
Finn, who should have fallen flat on his back, stabbed Shindokutō into the ground instead. Using the embedded blade as an anchor point, he swung his other leg up in a wide arc. The same purple halo wrapped around his boot as he brought it crashing toward Newgate's temple.
Newgate couldn't rise in time. He raised his left arm to guard the side of his head. Finn's kick connected with bone-jarring force, sending numbness shooting through Newgate's forearm, but the defense held.
The force of the blocked kick sent Finn spinning half a rotation through the air. He used the momentum and his grip on Shindokutō to land smoothly, his movements almost elegant despite the violence.
The instant his feet touched ground, he ripped Shindokutō free and swung it upward. The blade kicked up a cloud of sand directly into Newgate's face.
Newgate's eyes snapped shut on reflex. But a lifetime of combat gave him the awareness to respond even blind. Vibration force exploded from his body in all directions, creating a sphere of devastating power with no blind spots.
Shindokutō, now wrapped in flowing Armament Haki, thrust forward toward Newgate's torso.
The omnidirectional vibration nearly knocked Finn off his feet. But his legs remained planted, dark purple and black energy swirling around his boots. Gravity anchored him to the earth like a nail driven through steel.
Inch by inch, Shindokutō forced its way through the vibration field, pushing closer to Newgate's body.
Just as the blade's tip was about to pierce flesh, Newgate's eyes snapped open. Killing intent blazed in his gaze. He drew back his fist and threw a punch directly at Finn's face.
The motion disrupted his own technique. The omnidirectional vibration faltered, its perfect coverage breaking for just an instant.
In that instant, Finn's eyes flashed with ruthless calculation. He ignored the incoming fist entirely. Every ounce of strength in his body channeled into his arms, and he thrust Shindokutō forward with all his might.
Blood sprayed.
Half of Shindokutō's length punched through Newgate's torso, the demon blade sinking deep into flesh.
"Cough!" Newgate spat out a gout of blood. The power in his fist dissipated by half.
But the punch still connected solidly, slamming into Finn and sending him flying backward.
Finn flipped through the air, regaining control. He landed with both feet and skidded back two steps to bleed off the momentum. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, but the injury was minor. Newgate had been too injured to put his full strength behind that blow.
Newgate, on the other hand, now had Shindokutō embedded in his chest. The wound was barely a fist's width away from where Charlotte Linlin had stabbed him earlier. Blood poured freely from both injuries.
His expression twisted with pain. More blood leaked from his mouth with each labored breath.
Finn's sharp gaze caught the irregularity in Newgate's breathing. The old pirate's condition was deteriorating rapidly. The injury went far deeper than just the visible wound.
There was no question that Newgate hadn't been at peak condition when their fight began. Charlotte Linlin had already stabbed him. He'd fought her and Kaido for over a day before Finn arrived. The accumulated damage was massive.
Then there was that inexplicable black and white sphere that had detonated between them. Newgate had coughed up blood afterward, but he'd forced the internal injuries down through sheer willpower, suppressing the damage to keep fighting.
Until now. Finn's blade had shattered that suppression. The window paper had been torn, and Newgate could no longer contain the trauma to his internal organs. His breathing pattern was completely chaotic.
Finn had no intention of giving Newgate time to recover.
Kill him while he's sick, as the saying goes.
Finn slammed both palms against the ground. His Gravity Domain erupted outward in a violent wave.
"Gravity Domain: Devourer of the Sea!"
The crushing pressure enveloped Newgate at terrifying speed. His powerful frame sank down, driven to one knee. The sand beneath him compressed, and he sank even deeper into the forming crater.
"Kugh..." Newgate endured the gravitational force and spat out another mouthful of blood.
A transparent energy field began emanating from his body, vibration force creating a defensive layer to resist Finn's gravity. But the shimmer of that transparent barrier was being steadily suppressed by the dark purple gravitational pressure, compressed inch by inch.
In the distance, Charlotte Linlin saw what was happening and her expression turned frantic.
"Damn it, Whitebeard! You old bastard, you were fierce enough when you fought me and Kaido! How are you so weak now? Are you trying to screw me over?!"
If Finn defeated Newgate here and now, both she and Kaido would be in terrible danger.
"Heavenly Fire!"
Charlotte Linlin threw a devastating punch, shattering the ice barrier in front of her into powder. She stomped the ground with enough force to crack it and charged toward Finn, completely disregarding Kuzan and Smoker.
She understood the situation perfectly. Whitebeard's injuries were severe, but monsters at their level could suppress damage to a degree. If she could buy him just a little time to stabilize, he'd be back in the fight.
Kuzan's eyes gleamed. "Frozen River."
He could see it too. If Finn got just a bit more time, he'd eliminate Newgate as a threat and free up his hands to help deal with Charlotte Linlin and Kaido. Kuzan needed to hold the Big Mom pirate back.
A massive wall of ice erupted from the ground, blocking Charlotte Linlin's path.
"Get out of my way!" Charlotte Linlin's eyes blazed with fury. Her monstrous body crashed directly into the glacier like a living battering ram.
CRACK!
The ice wall, dozens of meters thick, shattered under her charge. Her frame, built like a tank, burst through the frozen barrier and continued her rush toward Finn.
But the shattered ice crystals floating in the air began emitting white vapor and intense cold.
Before Charlotte Linlin could take another step, the broken fragments solidified instantly. Frost extended from every piece, and in moments, Charlotte Linlin found herself frozen in place, encased in ice.
"Don't underestimate me, okay?" Kuzan emerged from the ice sculpture itself, frost vapors drifting from his mouth.
On the other side of the battlefield, Kaido had noticed the situation as well. He and Gion had taken their fight into the sky.
His enormous dragon form coiled and twisted through the storm clouds. The bastard's resistance to lightning was genuinely impressive. Even Gion's extraordinarily powerful electrical attacks couldn't inflict serious damage on him.
Combined with his thick hide and incredible endurance, the two were evenly matched.
As for Kaido's attempts to hit Gion, he was equally frustrated. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit's speed was absurd. She was so fast Kaido could barely track her movements, let alone land a clean hit. The battle had stalemated.
But seeing Charlotte Linlin's predicament and Whitebeard being suppressed, Kaido exhaled a powerful gust. The wind blast shot toward Finn in the distance.
Wherever the compressed air passed, it carried razor-sharp wind pressure capable of slicing through steel.
Finn continued pouring gravity into his technique, steadily increasing the pressure on Newgate. He seemed to sense something and glanced up at the approaching wind blade.
But there was no panic in his eyes, no intention to defend or dodge. He remained utterly focused on suppressing Newgate.
When the wind attack was less than ten meters away, a bolt of lightning detonated above Finn's head. Gion's figure materialized from the flash, Konpira crackling with electricity in her hand. Facing the howling wind blade, she slashed out with a fierce strike.
The lightning-wrapped blade cut the compressed air in half. The dissipating remnants passed by Finn's sides, carved into the sand, and dispersed harmlessly.
"You have a lot of confidence in me." Gion rested Konpira on her shoulder with a small smile.
Finn didn't even look up. "Isn't that obvious?"
Without another word, Gion's form exploded into lightning again and vanished from view. Kaido roared in fury above, and thunder boomed through the clouds as their high-speed clash resumed.
The gravity in Finn's hands had condensed to a critical point. His expression darkened. He stared at Newgate and growled, "Gravity Domain: Planetary Devastation."
The dark gravitational energy forcibly spread through the transparent vibration barrier Newgate was maintaining. The purple-black power eroded more and more territory, forming what looked like a black coffin intent on sealing Newgate inside.
Blood continued to flow from Newgate's mouth. The muscles across his body surged as he tried to summon more strength to resist and break through the gravitational suppression. But every time he exerted more force, his breathing became more chaotic and more blood spilled from his lips.
Just as Finn was about to completely seal Newgate, a terrifying warning flashed through his mind.
There was no reason for it. No visible sign.
He didn't even understand what the warning meant.
Kaido was occupied by Gion. Kuzan had Charlotte Linlin entangled. He was suppressing Whitebeard. What could possibly give him this sense of crisis?
This wasn't his Observation Haki predicting the future. This was pure instinct, the survival sense of a top-tier fighter.
Without overthinking it, Finn released the gravitational energy in his hands and kicked backward, launching himself forward like a springing rabbit.
The instant he moved, an overwhelmingly powerful slash tore through the space he'd just occupied. Judging from the force behind that strike, if it had connected cleanly, he'd have been grievously wounded at best, killed at worst.
Before Finn could process what had happened, cold steel flashed into his vision. Fast. Incredibly fast. An absurdly fast blade!
Shindokutō was still embedded in Newgate's chest. Finn had no weapon in hand at all.
At this critical moment, Finn raised his arm. Armament Haki wrapped around his forearm in an instant, and he activated Tekkai simultaneously. The slash crashed against his layered defense and sent him flying backward from the sheer pressure.
Two attacks. Both sneak attacks. Each one faster than the last.
The attacker was undoubtedly a powerful swordsman.